The political economy of liberalising trade in services, international conference

Policy on trade in services exists in the space between traditional trade negotiations and, among other things, a range of relatively new investment-related and labor migration policies. Inadequate conceptualization of services trade and the host of political economy forces that underpin it may well be limiting the chances for policy breakthroughs at the multilateral level and in preferential settings. There is a need to better understand the ways in which the power structures of states, regulatory institutions, lobby groups, epistemic communities and individuals jointly shape markets and systems of economic governance in the service sector, and how these in turn affect political processes and negotiated outcomes. While a growing body of literature addresses international trade in services from a law and economics perspective, much less has been written to date from an international relations/ political economy perspective.

This major international conference features two important contributions from members of the NCCR-Trade Regulation research community:

• Pierre Sauvé, who serves as Leader of Work Package 2 on Preferential Trade, will present a paper entitled "WTO+? Assessing the Value-added of Preferential Trade Agreements in Services", which serves as the overarching framework paper for one of WP2's sub-projects on preferences in services trade.

• Charlotte Sieber-Gasser and Marion Panizzon, respectively Doctoral Fellow and Leader of Work Package 4 on Trade, Development and Migration, will present a paper on "Legal Framework for Cross-Regional Networks: The Case of Services and Migration".